Sauce hollandaiseisFrench for "Hollandic sauce".[note 1] The first documented recipe is from 1651 in La Varenne's Le Cuisinier François[7] for "asparagus with fragrant sauce":[8]
make a sauce with some good fresh butter, a little vinegar, salt, and nutmeg, and an egg yolk to bind the sauce; take care that it doesn't curdle[8]
La Varenne is credited with bringing sauces out of the Middle Ages with his publication and may well have invented hollandaise sauce.[11] A more recent name for it is sauce Isigny, named after Isigny-sur-Mer, which is famous for its butter.[6][12] Isigny sauce is found in recipe books starting in the 19th century.[13][14]
By the 19th century, sauces had been classified into four categories by Carême. One of his categories was allemande, which was a stock-based sauce using egg and lemon juice. Escoffier replaced allemande with egg-based emulsions, specifically mayonnaise, in his list of the mother saucesofhaute cuisine.[15]Hollandaise was included in the section on derivatives[16] but in the English translation, the mention of mayonnaise as a mother sauce was removed and hollandaise was moved to the section on mother sauces.[17]
While many believe that a true hollandaise sauce should only contain the basic ingredients of eggs, butter, and lemon, Prosper Montagne suggested using either a white wine or vinegar reduction, similar to a Béarnaise sauce, to help improve the taste.[18]
In English, the name "Dutch sauce" was common through the 19th century, but was largely displaced by hollandaise in the 20th.[1]
To make hollandaise sauce, beaten egg yolks are combined with butter, lemon juice, salt, and water, and heated gently while being mixed. Some cooks use a double boiler to control the temperature. Some recipes add melted butter to warmed yolks; others call for unmelted butter and the yolks to be heated together; still others combine warm butter and eggs in a blender or food processor.[23] Temperature control is critical, as excessive temperature can curdle the sauce.[24][25] Some chefs start with a reduction. The reduction consists of vinegar, water and cracked peppercorns. These ingredients are reduced to "au sec" or almost dry, strained, and added to the egg yolk mixture.
Mayonnaise and its derivative Hollandaise are among the French mother sauces,[2][27][28] and the foundation for many derivatives created by adding or changing ingredients, including:
The most common derivative is egg yolk with reduction sauce Béarnaise. It can be produced by replacing the acidifying agent (vinegar reduction or lemon juice) in a preparation with a strained reduction of vinegar, shallots, fresh chervil, fresh tarragon, and (if to taste) crushed peppercorns.[29][30][31] Alternatively, the flavorings may be added to a standard hollandaise. Béarnaise and its children are often used on steak or other "assertive" grilled meats and fish.
Sauce Choron is a variation of Béarnaise without tarragon or chervil, plus tomato purée.[31][32]
How To Make Hollandaise SauceArchived 8 November 2008 at the Wayback Machine Step-by-step tutorial from About.com (generally good, but a glass or ceramic bowl is not recommended as they make it too difficult to control the heat)
Free Culinary School Podcast Episode 8 A podcast (audio) episode that talks about the proper classical technique for making Hollandaise and the science behind the method.
France (see French cuisine)
Media: Hollandaise sauce
